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Extra End Joy for Team GB Men v Italy On Day 5 of the Curling Schedule at the Winter Olympics

Posted on 18 February 2018

There was extra end joy for the Team GB men when they beat Italy 7-6 to move to three wins and three losses in the round robin tournament at the Gangnueng Curling Centre.

Team Smith had started strongly against the Italians scoring a two in the first end and were leading 3-1 by the half way stage. However exchanges of twos over the next three ends saw the teams level after the eighth and a missed chance for a further two at the ninth for the British side saw them going in to the last end with Italy holding the hammer. However their opponents were held to a single to take the game to an extra end, where, with two Italian stones counting skip Kyle Smith held his nerve to draw the shot and claim a much needed win.

Speaking after the game, skip Kyle Smith said: “I didn’t have a lot of confidence and that was one of my worst games of the week but the guys did a great job to set that up for me.

“I thought about all the times I’ve thrown that shot in practice and tried to stay in the moment and get my weight right.

“It was a must win match to stay in contention with some of the other teams and a couple more wins and things will be looking really good.

“I thought there were a lot of positives to how we approached and played the game. This gives us more momentum and there are lots of things to improve on too.”

Coach Vikor Kjell added: “It was an emotional roller coaster but the most important thing was that we won it. There was great curling in lots of parts of the game and a few unforced errors from our side which put our opponents in a few good situations.

“I think the most important thing we showed is that we played a really good tenth end and a very good eleventh end and Cammy once again nailed his tick shots and it makes such a difference playing that end from there. Whilst Kyle (Smith) had an unlucky miss with his first stone I always thought as long as we have a four foot open for a one and we had that, that Kyle would make that and our sweepers had total control once it was out of his hands.

“There a still a few things we need to sharpen up to keep progressing in this tournament, but I am confident that we can do that,” Kjell added.

Team Smith play Denmark tomorrow whilst Team GB’s women face Switzerland who are ranked fourth in the world.